Daily Archives: October 8, 2007

Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, and Bobby Abreu each hit late-inning home runs last night, but none of them came with men on base, and the three runs were not enough to dig the Yankees out of the early hole in which Chien-Ming Wang put them. Thus the Yankees’ plan of winning one game at a time to salvage their season came up two wins short, ending their thrilling season with the franchise’s third consecutive first-round playoff exit.

As much as I hate to see any one player take abuse for a team’s collective failings, Chein-Ming Wang has to be the goat of this series. After giving up eight runs in 4 2/3 innings and taking the loss in an ugly Game One, Wang put the Yankees in another early hole last night. Grady Sizemore homered on Wang’s third pitch to start things off, and singles by Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta made it 2-0 before the Yankees even got their first turn at bat. Still, Hafner’s single was a ground ball (albeit a hard hit one) that found a hole near third base with Alex Rodriguez playing the lefty slugger to pull, and the three outs Wang recorded in that inning also came on the ground, so it seemed as if he was settling down.

He wasn’t. The first two batters in the top of the second singled. Eric Wedge then signaled for Kelly Shoppach, his ninth-place hitter (and Paul Byrd’s personal catcher), to bunt, but Wang’s 1-0 pitch, which Jorge Posada wanted over the plate at the knee, sailed up and in sending Shoppach spinning to the ground. The ball appeared to ricochet of the barrel of Shoppach’s bat, but, after conferencing, the umpires agreed that it had grazed his right hand, thus loading the bases with no outs for Sizemore, who had already homered of Wang in this game.

Again operating with the quick hook with his team facing elimination, Joe Torre called original Game Four starter Mike Mussina out of the pen (the arguments and umpire conferencing over the hit-by-pitch gave Mussina enough extra time to get warm). Mussina did what Wang couldn’t by getting Sizemore to hit into a double play, trading a third Cleveland run for the two outs, but then gave up an RBI single to Asdrubal Cabrera and walked Hafner before getting out of the inning with the Yankees trailing 4-0.

The Yankees slow climb back into the game began in the bottom of the second when Derek Jeter beat out an infield single with the bases loaded and two outs to drive in the first Yankee run, but the Bombers would never reach the apex. Paul Byrd kept the Yanks off balance all night, stranding two men in the first, three in the second, and one each in the third, fourth, and fifth. Meanwhile, Mussina allowed two more runs in the fourth when Victor Martinez singled to plate Shoppach and Sizemore, who had started the inning with a ground-rule double and a walk. Before the night was over, every man in the Yankee lineup would leave at least one man on base, with each of the top eight hitters stranding at least two.

Robinson Cano’s home run, his second of the series, came leading off the sixth and drove Byrd from the game in favor of lefty Rafael Perez. After singles by pinch-hitter Shelley Duncan and Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter hit into his third double play in the last two games to end the inning.

Rodriguez’s homer came off Perez with one out and none on in the seventh (Rodriguez had singled in his previous at-bat and hit .267 on the series after going 4 for 9 in the final two games). Hideki Matsui would draw a two-out walk later in the inning only to be stranded by a Cano groundout.

Trailing by three, the Yankees went down 1-2-3 against Rafael Betancourt in the eighth. That set up Jeter, Abreu, and Rodriguez for the ninth against Joe Borowski. Jeter, who hit .176 on the series, popped out on a 1-1 pitch. Abreu homered into the upper deck in right to make it 6-4. Rodriguez flied out to the warning track in right on a 1-2 pitch up and away. Posada, who hit .133 on the series, struck out on three pitches: a called high strike, a would-be home run that curved just a few feet foul down the right field line, and a slider in the dirt that he flailed at hopelessly to end the Yankees’ season.

The end.

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It may seem strange, but I think the Yankees are in a better position having fallen behind 0-2 in this series then rallied to force a game four than if they had split in Cleveland then lost their home opener last night. In either case they’d be down 1-2, but I believe that, being on the verge of elimination and faced with the task of winning three straight to prolong their season, the team’s approach is different than it would have been otherwise. As I wrote in my pregame post yesterday, the Yankees have to do to the Indians what the Red Sox did to them in 2004: Take the field each day with the goal of winning only that day’s game.

That sentiment was echoed by Joe Torre and several of his players last night, including hitting stars Johnny Damon and Robinson Cano.

With that in mind, Joe Torre has decided to start Chien-Ming Wang tonight on short rest to take advantage of his extreme home/road splits. Wang has never started on three-days’ rest in the majors before, but his ERA at home during the regular season was more than two runs lower than his ERA on the road. Over his three years in the majors, the difference is smaller, but still in excess of a run and a half. Perhaps Wang’s just more comfortable on the Yankee Stadium mound. Perhaps it’s that his fielders, upon whom he’s very reliant, are more familiar with the bounces they’re likely to get, or the speed with which the ball moves through the infield grass in their home park. Maybe Wang doesn’t deal well with air travel or hotel stays. Whatever it is, it’s a meaningful difference, and one that likely cost the Yankees a win in Game One when they had C.C. Sabathia on the ropes only to watch Wang cough up three runs in the first and get bounced in the fifth as the Tribe put up a five spot.

More evidence of the split can be found in Wang’s performance down the stretch. He was actually fantastic, going 6-1 with a 2.67 ERA in eight starts, seven of them quality starts, but the one non-quality start (which was also the one loss) came on the road in Boston. Meanwhile, here’s what he did in his last three home starts combined (against Boston, Seattle, and Toronto):

21 1/3 IP, 12 H, 3 R (2 ER), 1 HR, 8 BB, 10 K, 0.94 WHIP, 0.84 ERA, 2-0

As for the theory that sinkerballers do better on short rest because being too fresh can often cause them to keep the ball up, negating the effects of their sinkers, there’s no evidence of that on Wang because he’s never pitched on three-days’ rest, but here are the splits for Kevin Brown, who despite being abhored by Yankee fans, was a borderline Hall of Fame sinkerballer (he also provides a reasonably large sample size):

3 Days: 2.98 ERA
4 Days: 3.17 ERA
5 Days: 3.20 ERA
6 Days+: 3.98 ERA

It’s a minuscule difference, but it’s there.

The Indians are sticking with their original plan by starting Paul Byrd tonight. Byrd has an interesting home/road split of his own, with an ERA two runs lower on the road. The Yankees beat him badly in August (2 IP, 7 R), but that was in Cleveland. Last year they faced him twice, once in Cleveland (another beating: 3 2/3 IP, 9 R) and once in the Bronx. In the latter he turned in a gem, holding the Yanks to one run over seven innings only to lose a 1-0 game to . . . wait for it . . . Chien-Ming Wang.

There’s one other relevant Paul Byrd start I wanted to mention, that came at Yankee Stadium in Game Three of the 2005 ALDS when Byrd was with the Angels. The Yanks got to Byrd but good then too (3 2/3 IP, 4 R), but Mike Scioscia worked a quick hook and Randy Johnson and Aaron Small gave it all back plus some and the Yankees lost 11-7.

So, really, anything could happen tonight, but, if the Yankees do pull out another win, they’ll have tied the series and will head back to Cleveland to play a double-elimination game with Andy Pettitte pitching on full rest against C.C. Sabathia. That’s Wednesday, though. The Yankees need only concern themselves with today.